Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 26, 2014 Letters
DEAR EDITOR,
I read in the news papers with a great deal of interest that ‘’Guyanese applying for a passport for the first time must produce a birth certificate not less than six months old before the application.’’
As an Ordained Minister of Religion, Legal Marriage Officer and a signatory on passport forms, I believe this new regulation is in error and is completely wrong.
While I can comprehend that the Hon. Minister of Home Affairs is trying to stamp out corruption pertaining to illegal birth certificates, marriage certificates etc. This new regulation doesn’t convince me that irregularities of forged birth certificates will come to an end.
The Hon. Minister did not say if married women applying for a passport for the first time must have a new marriage certificate, and husband new birth certificate, since they are required to produce those documents with their birth certificates for a new passport. This new regulation did not say if widows must have a new death certificate and divorced women must produce a new updated absolute or those with name change by deed poll an updated deed poll. This regulation did not say if children whose parents will apply for passports for them must also have a new birth certificate within six months.
In my opinion, a legal birth certificate, marriage certificate, and death certificate doesn’t have an expiry date on it, so how can this new birth certificate law inform the immigration officer that it’s an original or forged birth certificate? I believe if the birth certificate is very old and writings are not legible then the applicant must produce a new birth certificate.
To apply for a birth certificate now will take two months or longer… even a year. A late registration takes six months. One cannot fill out an application form and go upstairs at the GPOC and pay $600 for two birth certificates and get it instantly unless huge bribes are given; so this new law may appear to be good, but stricter laws must be made and given to the Registrar General to facilitate birth certificates instantly.
Here is an example of a man who spent $20,000 to travel with his wife to the immigration from Crabwood Creek; he arrives at 7a.m. and after waiting until midday is told he needs new birth certificates. He now takes a Taxi for a $1000 to the GPOC to be told to submit an application and his birth certificates will be posted in two months. He has no other alternative but to pay a bribe of $10,000 to get his birth certificates. The stricter the laws the greater the corruption.
My next question is: why is it that the entire nation has to travel to Georgetown to obtain a very inferior quality machine readable passport? After seven years, why is it this government cannot decentralize this passport office? In Berbice it used to be in New Amsterdam and Skeldon. What they need to do is set up Passport Offices in the different regions so our citizens can have easy access to apply for their passports without paying thousands to travel to Georgetown to be sent home empty-handed. Their applications will be made in their regions and their passport will be processed in Georgetown using the same old system we had many years ago.
After 48 years of Independence, to obtain a simple birth certificate has been a great problem. All the applications are done at GPOC then they go through old, dead, worn-out books searching for applicants’ names. This again must be decentralized to the various regions to ease the paper work pressure. In this age of computers and the internet, passport applications should be done online; after payment a receipt is given to the applicant to be taken to their nearest Birth Certificate office to obtain their birth certificates. What’s the big deal to computerize this nation’s births with less than a million people?
My next point: if these new laws are implemented then it should be in the passport form and be posted all over the media and pasted at schools, libraries, hospitals etc. to sensitize the Guyanese public. I have birth certificates for myself and families many years in brand new condition. Why is it that I have to get a new birth certificate for my child to get a simple passport? Then the other problem at GPOC is folks working there always spelling people’s names wrong and in some cases give them completely different names.
I applied for a birth certificate three times for an old lady at my church. GPOC claimed the lady was never registered. I took the lady to them after she showed them her ID card, stating that she had an old red birth certificate but it was damaged. They found her name and mailed me the birth certificate one month later. To my amazement, they gave the lady a completely new first name. My last name on the envelope they called me ‘Leal’’ instead of Cecil. I wonder how many folks working at GPOC passed three subjects including English Language. I am thoroughly convinced we are governed by modern illiterates.
This whole issue about this new law about a six months old birth certificate for a first applicant passport should be reviewed and a Bill should be tabled in parliament and approved before this unjust, ridiculous law is approved. Our present administrators make and break so many laws they themselves cannot uphold. How many of our Ministers in government will wait two months for a birth certificate to get them a new passport? If my parent dies in the USA and I don’t have a passport, it means I can’t travel unless I have a new birth certificate.
Can our erudite Minter of Legal Affairs tell me why this entire nation has to travel to Georgetown for a passport and birth certificate? How do we compare ourselves with our Caribbean neighbours? Who will compensate people travelling from Essequibo, Berbice, Linden, Lethem etc. to be turned down for their passport? They should file a lawsuit to be compensated for their expenses.
I am thoroughly convinced that we are a nation behind human civilization when I compare our nation with countries I have been to. May God help us.
Rev. Gideon Cecil
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